1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fire escape devices, and particularly to a device which enables persons trapped in the interior of a building or other enclosure to safely descend from the building to a safe level some distance below a level at which a person or persons may be trapped.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many fatal injuries have resulted from persons being trapped in the interior of a building by a fire located between the location of the persons and a normally provided escape route from the building. This is particularly a problem in modern highrise structures, which usually are provided with only interior stairwells and elevator systems. Accordingly, numerous proposals have been made for enabling such trapped individuals to escape by lowering themselves down the exterior wall of a building from a window opening, and the like.
My prior U.S. Pat. Nos: 3,507,763, issued Apr. 7, 1970; 3,765,507, issued Oct. 16, 1973; 3,834,489, issued Sept. 10, 1974; and 4,056,166, issued Nov. 1, 1977, and references cited therein, are representative of such fire escape devices. In many of the previous devices, the slide structure is assembled on the flexible rope or other element, since the flexible element is threaded through the slide member, thus necessitating that the person using the fire escape device put the sling on while positioned adjacent the flexible element. Thus, even though more than one slide member could be positioned on the flexible element, under near panic conditions which may exist, it sometimes occurs that a number of individuals adjacent the flexible member interfere with each other when trying to gain access to a sling since all of the slings would be located in an adjacent relation.
The disadvantages of many prior art devices were overcome by my U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,166. Nevertheless, the slide disclosed in this patent is of rather complex construction including several pieces which had to be properly connected to one another for attachment to the rope. In addition, this prior device failed to permit a person using the device to control the rate of descent of the person by employing pressure to the free end of the rope or other flexible element in addition to controlling the pressure applied to the flexible element by a clamp provided on a slide member of the device.